A reciprocating floor container is a container which enables a load to be removed from the container without the container being lifted. The reciprocating floor comprises a plurality of elongate and substantially horizontal slats positioned on the floor of the container. The horizontal slats can be moved along the floor by hydraulic beams. As the slats are moved along the load within the container is moved with it. Adjacent slats may move back and forth in a reciprocating manner.
As the container is not lifted a portion of the load may remain in the container. The remaining load may need to be cleaned out manually otherwise the residual material may contaminate the next load of the container. Cleaning of containers between loads reduces time and cost efficiencies.
Furthermore any material remaining within a container is typically wasted. Thus it may be necessary to fill a container with excess material in order to ensure the desired payload is delivered. Otherwise, less than the desired payload will be delivered to the recipient if a volume of material remains in the container after unloading.
It would be useful to provide an apparatus for efficiently cleaning out the load from such containers and reducing the amount of residual material remaining in such containers after the load has been emptied.